Opinion Archive

Every day for the past two weeks, I have received an email claiming to be from Sirius XM, warning me that my subscription is about to be terminated due to lack of payment. All I must do to correct my perilous situation is submit my payment information to the sender. It is a scam, that fact validated by their atrocious spelling, and by the daily emails I receive from Sirius XM informing me of musical programming I might like.

I’m visiting a prison later this week in Blountstown and I was required to submit information for a background check before I got permission to go inside.  Let that sink in.  I totally understand, but the irony wasn’t lost on me. I heard that the prison is training inmates on how to operate a piece of machinery that I’m interested in knowing more about. And, because there is always a story, there is a story. However, I don’t have permission for the story yet. They have vocational programs and when the inmates that are in the program are released, they leave with a vocational certificate. I’ll have to see if we have any subscribers there. We have quite a few in prison. One time a paper was sent back to us because inside that issue was a story about how someone got in trouble for breaking someone out of prison. The note we received back from the prison office was that the story was too descriptive and gave details on how to sneak certain items into prison. The person that didn’t receive their paper missed it, so we cut that story out of the paper and sent it back to the prison. It was very appreciated. We appreciate our subscribers that happen to be in prison. At least it helps the prison guards read newspapers – because apparently, they are reading them before they are passed on to their rightful owners. My mom used to go to a maximum-security prison for women in Orlando every Sunday evening to lead a Bible study when she was in her 80’s. She was always nervous that she would make a mistake and not be able to go back. There were very strict rules about what she could wear and bring with her. Pens were not allowed, or sharp pencils. I’ll follow her lead when I visit the prison.   

Asked recently what my goal is now, this nonagenarian responded, “The same as when first born again, i.e. to manifest the reconciliation of man to God, to expand God’s family.” Jesus said in the greatest book ever to be written, not to be superseded, “Ye must be born again.” That means get priorities straight, make Jesus Lord and Savior.  Doing this gives a peace that passes all understanding, ensuring a home in eternity with Him, Creator of heaven and earth!  Experiencing the new birth is the most important decision one can make.

The Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners spent over an hour on June 24 arguing about a resolution regarding illegal immigration. It was an hour of commissioners’ time they can never get back. It was an hour of our life we will never get back. It was an hour of time when nothing was being done for the citizens of Santa Rosa County.

The Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners spent over an hour on June 24 arguing about a resolution regarding illegal immigration. It was an hour of commissioners’ time they can never get back. It was an hour of our life we will never get back. It was an hour of time when nothing was being done for the citizens of Santa Rosa County.

Both sides in the Pensacola Sports Association All-Star Softball Game earlier this month were missing players. I think I counted nine missing in action from the East and about half of the 24-player roster unavailable on the West squad.
I wasn’t at the baseball all-star game, but word is the East had to give up some of its players so the West could have enough players to fill out a team.

Thanks for your mock election article. Navarre high schoolers exhibited more sense than college student protestors.                

Technology is great…when it works! The church I serve as pastor livestreams its worship services and occasionally there is a glitch in the technology and our livestream is, well, a dead-stream. That happened this past Lord’s Day and was only discovered at the end of the worship service. My immediate thought? “Okay, nobody leaves! We’re going to do this worship service again!” Of course, that was my frustration talking and the thought was never vocalized. Instead, I perused the coming week in my mind to determine when I could at least record the sermon and make it available.

This week I’m writing about mosquito control because they are out of control. I was trying to talk to my new neighbors, who recently moved here from Alaska, around dusk last week and we were all swatting mosquitos and dancing around trying to get out of the mosquitoes’ way. They were relentless. My feet and ankles were on fire. I finally had to tell our new neighbors that I just couldn’t chat anymore because – I couldn’t. I high tailed it back into my house – while zig-zagging back and forth trying to throw the mosquitos off my tail. I have found a few trying to follow me in my house. I found out that in the few months that our new neighbors have been here, they have also found the mosquitos to be overly plentiful. They had already invested in some kind of mosquito magnet machine that kills mosquitoes.  I would have checked it out if I didn’t have to literally run away.

Political season sure does bring out some of the most unique situations.

We saw that a few weeks ago when Commissioner James Calkins did a reversal so large regarding Juana’s Pagodas and Sailor’s Grill that it should’ve been sponsored by ServPro. To reference the restoration company, it was almost like “it never even happened.”